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Brownielocks and The 3 Bears
presentCartoon Fun
and

Anthropologist Edmund
Leach said in his 1958 essay "Magical Hair" that long hair =
unrestrained sexuality; short hair or partially shaved hair = restricted
sexuality; and, close cropped hair = celibacy. Then in 1969, C.D. Hallpike
wrote an essay called "Social Hair", which said that long hair =
being outside of society, while short hair = re-entering society.

Today, you'll see the
mighty Mullet in the suburbs, in the heartlands, all over Latin America
and in eastern Europe. You won't see many Mullets in Beverly Hills.
And, they don't often show up on MTV!

Could it be that
flipping a baseball cap to the back (causing the brim to fall down your
neck) is a way of being a "Wanna-be Mullet" guy!?

Therefore, anyone
can have an inner- mullet-craving, anytime, anywhere.
Even President Obama?

The Mullet is the
hairstyle of America's blue-collar or redneck underbelly.
The term "redneck" originally
referred to the burnt, red neck of those working in the farms and outdoors
a lot. Perhaps to help prevent this from happening, they grew their
hair longer on their necks? So, the style in our society is
associated with rough, outdoor work?

Beastie Boys
acolyte The Captain says, "The Mullet is as American as pick-ups with
rifle racks, tractor pulls, Wal-Mart, wet T-shirt contests, slapping your
girl upside the head with a frying pan and living in the
woods." If there is one man that edifies the Beastie Boys'
statement, I think that would be Duane Chapman aka "Dog, The Bounty
Hunter." (In no way am I implying that he slaps women! I
just mean that he is a symbol of the rough class.)

What is a
Mullet? It's a haircut that is short in the front and long in the
back. No one is really sure where it comes from. Some say the French
word mulet meaning "mule" is it's source. Lexicographer,
Jonathan Green says "Mullethead" is a slang for
"fool." (I'm assuming that our English slang of
"jackass" being his meaning for "fool?") But, the 1932
Webster's New International Dictionary defines "mullet" as a
verb meaning "to curl or dress the hair."

But the genius of the
Mullet is the fact that it lets its wearer become two people: a person who
from the front looks like a regular person, but from the back is an
untamed party animal or Viking warrior.

Italian Mullethead
Scotty Bugatti once told his barber, "Spike the top but don't touch
the back." The result is a glorious example of the outer-borough
Italian-American Mullet known as the Guido.

This brings me to the
other names for The Mullet: the trans-am, the neck warmer, a short-long,
neck blanket and ape-drape.

So how did this mighty
Mullet hairstyle all begin?

Some say that it goes
back to the caveman. That is, if you look at some of the drawings people
have done of our Neanderthal ancestors. He's shown as dressed in
Tarzan-style suede loin cloth and sports a scraggly, scruffy style of
Mullet.

But the first real
Mullet is said to come from Egypt, even though it was a wig. The wig was
made of black wool or flax, woven or braided into plaits. This was
the wig of the elite. Poorer Egyptians wore felt wigs.

Later on, the
Assyrians grew their hair thick, bristly long. They also wore wigs. But,
the Assyrian (wig) Mullet was very ornamental. It was layered, with
straight hair that had knots of curls at the end.

With the Persian
Mullet, the top had tousled curls and the bottom fanned out across the
shoulders in long braided ringlets.

The Celtic Mullet was
pretty messy and to me looked a lot like the Neantherdal. They didn't tend
to their hair much. The Celtics thinned out the sides of their hair,
letting them droop down to the neck area. The Celtic Mullet today is seen
on bikers, wrestlers and heavy metal drummers. The Celtics also died their
hair green and blue. (Think of Mel Gibson in "Braveheart.")

Now the Greeks sort of
had Mullets by braiding their hair into long ringlets after they tucked it
behind their ears. But, when the Persian War ended in the 5th
Century, young Athenian men cut off their Mullets and consecrated them to
the gods. Thus, the short classical haircuts we see on those famous
statutes came into being! The Greeks also felt that long hair meant
disorder in your emotions. So the Greek women kept the Mullet alive by
wearing artificial curls on top and long braided hair drawn into a knot at
the the back (commonly dyed blonde).

The Romans were
different. Not only did they cut their own hair, but also the hair of the
males they captured. But once the Roman Empire fell, the Mullet made a
comeback with the Visgoths and the Vikings.

Then there came a time
when short hair was more popular and the Mullet was tossed aside.

The Merovingian period in France
(481-752) had short hair for the men basically. They wore plaited hair
on top, but cut the back. The Saxons of the 9th and 10th centuries also
wore their hair on the short side. The Normans were very anti-Mullet and
literally shaved the back of their heads in a pudding-bowl style.

But, the length started again
around the 12th century when men wore shoulder-length hair, parted on
each side and covering the ears. Then 200 years later, in the 14th
century short hair was in again, being brushed forward and rolled under.
Pudding-bowl shaped haircuts stayed popular until 1460, due to the
fashion of carcaille collars fitting up to the necks.

But, in 1465 the collars got
shorter and the hair got longer! The Mullet Page Boy became all
the rage. The curled shape was kept in place with resins and egg whites.

During the early 16th century
hair was mid-length often with fringe. Then in the 1560's the fashion
was for men to cut their hair close to the scalp, brushing it into
bristles (held by gum). The English Civil War in the next century
also brought about hairstyles that represented either the monarchy or
republicanism. The Royalists wore long, curly hair. The Roundheads
wore puritanical cropped hair.

The Chinese had a
semi-Mullet. They wore their hair long and bound-up. But, in 1644
they were required to shave their foreheads and plait their hair in long
braids that dangled down to the neck. This style is called the queue.
The Qing Dynasty persecuted hair growers. Later in 1911, the
uprising against the Manchu, queue cutting was a political issue. So
some say that the queue is a mullet in a way.

In 1633, Louis XIII lost his
hair. So, wigs replaced flowing locks. By the 18th century, wigs
got very, very, big and came in all sorts of bizarre shapes. It was just
a matter of time when people would protest all this powdering and
perfuming. So by the end of the century, wigs got shorter, tied back
with ribbons and showing most of the ears. (This look is seen
today in British courtrooms.)

But, the Mullet did not make a
comeback until the 18th century when wigs were totally tossed away.

Enter, Napoleon Bonaparte!
The "Romantic" Mullet was now being seen on the heads of
American Generals such as Horatio Gates, or cascading down the neck of
poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Finally, after centuries of being
overly neat and formal, now men were "real men" with real
unkempt hair and purposely disregarding neatness with their clothing.
And, paintings such as Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" imply that
the Mullet was also the hairstyle for the privileged English
youth.

Anne Hollander in "Sex and
Suits" writes, "Loose hair for mature men was usually a public
virile ornament. [it was] akin to the display of muscle and stature, a
sign of sexual force in action."

The Mullet has always been in
fashion with Native Americans and also western cowboys such as Buffalo
Bill Cody, etc.

During the Victorian Era, the
Mullet faded away. The emphasis was on the big moustaches, sideburns
called "Mutton Chops", "Dundrearys", and
"Piccadilly Weepers."

During the next
hundred years, nothing changed much. In fact, the early 20th century had
male hair very short due to military influence (due to World Wars)
melting into civilian life. For a brief time, the Pompadour was in
fashion. But not for long.

It really wasn't until
the explosion of rock music, did the Mullet claim it's fame. An
androgynous, carrot-haired ushered the Mullet into popularity. His name:
David Bowie!

David's Mullet was
short and spiky on top, severe at the sides and had long wisps trailing
down the neck. It was the birth of the Rock Mullet as we know it
today. It came about due to David's wife, Angie Bowie. Her and
David were talking about cutting his hair short (to do something shocking
since long Hippish Shags were in) but David did not want it "too
short or ordinary." Angie leafed through some of her old copies
of Vogue magazine. About 30 minutes later she had had
it! The top would be pointy based on a photo from a French Vogue
publication. And, the back and sides would be from two other photos
from a German Vogue magazine.
And, so the Rock Mullet was born! Later on in her biography, Angie
Bowie wrote that history was made that day -- and that the Ziggy Mullet
was "the single most reverberant fashion statement of the 70's."

But popularity didn't
come instantly. It took a while to catch on and seep into the
mainstream. Most male rockers were still wearing their hair in the
basic androgynous shag style. Rod Stewart had his
"rooster" cut, but it wasn't until glam rock peaked that the
Rock Mullet flourished.

Suddenly it wasn't
just the rockers who took to the new look. Post-Beatle, Paul McCarthy
quickly adopted the Mullet. Meanwhile, his wife, Linda and Wings bandmate,
pioneered what we call the "Fe-Mullet" or the Female
Mullet. This is a style (somewhat muted) seen on sitcom stars also
like Florence Henderson (The Brandy Bunch) and Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob
Newhart Show).

Suddenly the Mullet
wasn't just for men!

But, the Mullet simply
exploded in popularity in the 1980's. The short in the front, party in the
back took over the rock, sports, fashion and porn worlds.

The Mullet was worn by
a wide variety of rock bands, but no one held a candle to Klaus Mein, the
German metal rocker of the band Scorpions.

The 1980's was called the era of "Big Hair." There was teased
and perioxide hair. But the Rock Mullet was an essential look of the
pop videos. Daryl Hall and John Oates had Mullets. The Cars,
Richard Marx, Michael Bolton, Bono all had Mullets. By the end of
the 80's even Lou Reed had a Mullet.

Not only did the 80's
have rock stars with Mullets, but everyone seemed to have one.
Tennis players such as Pat Cash, Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova all
wore them. Movie stars like Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, Patrick Swayze
had them. Soccer players Roberto Baggio, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle
had them. Football players wore Mullets under their helmets, such as Dough
Flutie, Brian Bosworth, and Golden Richards. World Champion Figure Skater,
Evgeni Plushenko.

And, even African
Americans wore Mullets! Barry White, Nicholas Ashford and even the
Rev. Al Sharpton. Thus was born the African Mullet into our culture.

By the end of the 1980's, the
Mullet hairstyle could be seen through every mall, sports stadium and
speedway in the United States. Usually worn with tight stone-washed
jeans, sleeveless muscle shirts and mirrored sunglasses. The
Mullet now was a badge of pride. It was the hallmark of the rock n' rock
beer dude in his Camaro or Trans Am.

But... if you told the average
Mullethead that he owned this popularity to a flame-haired rock'n'roll
bisexual called Ziggy Stardust, he'd probably smash you over the head
with a six-pack!

In the 1990's the
Mullet was being cropped off by the rockers. But it remained alive in
Country Western music. Singers like Billy Ray Cyrus, Travis Tritt and
Tracy Lawrence still half-concealed their Mullets under their cowboy hats.

The most famous
Mullethead that got the girl during this time was, Larry Fortensky, who
married Elizabeth Taylor. And, Zachary Ty Bryan who starred on Home
Improvement was known as Kid Mullet. Also, magician, Franz Harary
wears a long mullet.

And now we go into the
new millennium. All rules of personal appearance seem to be broken.

Youth felt that short
hair was the problem and long hair the solution. The Mullethead knows
there are no sides anymore. The Mullet represents both for and against,
inside and outside, part of and apart from.

From a psychological
approach, one could say that the Mullet is both the Ego
(the short neat top) and the Id (the long,
flowing back). This analogy reaches into the areas of sex and
sociology.

Oh, and a lot of those
that had mullets in the past, got rid of them in this new
millennium. There's a lot of shaved heads now. But,there
are still few die-hard mullet men that keep the Mullet-look for
life!

"Hair" (by the Cowsills)

Lyrics by James Rado & Gerome Ragni
music by Galt MacDermot

She asks me why,
I'm just a hairy guy.
I'm hairy noon and night.
Hair that's a fright!
I'm hairy high and low.
Don't ask me why.
Don't know!
It's not for lack of bread,
Like the Grateful Dead....
Darling!

Gimme a head with hair!
Long beautiful hair!
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen.

Let it fly in the breeze.
And get caught in the trees.
Give a home to the fleas in my hair.
A home for fleas.
A hive for bees.
A nest for birds.
There ain't no words,
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder
Of my...

We
did not use one of our watercolor backgrounds for this page.
We felt it would clash with our Mullet drawings; and, reading all that text was
easier.
But, we have over 1,800 to pick from. Visit our watercolor backgrounds page.

*Thanks to
Elizabeth Parent for letting me know a little more about French interpretations.
;)

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